KC wins a 54-53 thriller over Farmington

FARMINGTON — A lethargic first quarter didn't stop the Kirtland Central boys basketball team from scoring a victory over the top team in District 1-5A tonight.

The Broncos avenged a 70-59 loss in the Marv Sanders semifinals earlier this season by outplaying Farmington in the fourth quarter and winning 54-53 at Bronco Arena in Kirtland.

"We didn't start off good. I think it was 25-8 at one point in the first quarter," Broncos coach Brian Dowdy said. "But give credit to our boys, they clawed back. I told them we can't hit a 12-point shot, so let's get to work."

Keaton Christy was a man on a mission for Farmington (15-3, 1-1 District 1-5A) in the early going, scoring all 13 of his points in the first quarter, which the visitors won 25-10.

But the Broncos woke up in a major way with a 14-0 run in the second quarter. Farmington staved the Broncos off before a Colby Mitchell 3-ball finally tied it at 38 late in the third.

With just over two minutes to go in the game, KC (10-7, 2-0) corralled its first lead since the early portion of the first quarter when the Broncos made it 50-49. Terrin Willie was instrumental in the Broncos' comeback, netting all 8 of his points in the final period.

KC's Bryson Dowdy was fouled with his team ahead by 1 and 8.7 ticks on the clock, but he missed the front end of his one-and-one free-throw opportunity. The Scorpions then took the ball up court without calling a timeout, and before they could get a shot off, Dowdy made up for his miss from the charity stripe by swiping the ball away from Farmington's Nick Granger and running out the clock.

The Scorps didn't call timeout because they didn't want to give the Broncos a chance to set up a particular defense, according to coach Paul Corley, who said FHS didn't make enough plays inside the final few minutes of the tight contest.

"We didn't defend very well there at the end," Corley said. "We had some crucial turnovers and things like that. These are high school kids, and they're going to make mistakes. Give credit to KC, they just made more plays than us. It's pretty simple."

Dowdy scored a game-high 15 points, 5 of which came in the fourth quarter.

KC will try to make it three district wins in a row when the Broncos visit Miyamura (9-9, 0-2) on Thursday.

Farmington remains on the road for Thursday's tilt with Aztec (5-13, 0-2).

Jake Newby covers sports for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4577.